speed cameras

Uptown’s Challenger Playlot Park is the poster child for the anti-traffic camera crowd. Along with Mulberry Playlot Park, in the McKinley Park neighborhood, Challenger is frequently cited as a small, little-used park that’s not even visible from the locations of speed cameras that are supposedly there to protect park users. This is proof, according to the naysayers, that the camera's true purpose is revenue, not safety.

The backlash against the Mulberry Playlot Park speed camera keeps getting more surreal. Now, 12th Ward Alderman George Cardenas is calling for demolishing the park to get rid of the cam.

12th Ward Alderman George Cardenas wants to use a dubious method to decide where Chicago’s speed cameras should go: crowdsourcing.

Some motorists are complaining about a new speed camera along the busy 3200 block of Archer Avenue in McKinley Park. The accusations of a "speed trap" focus on the camera's location, which is not immediately adjacent to the small park that, under Chicago's "safety zones" rules, justifies the camera's placement. But the camera is located in a part of Chicago where speeding is endemic and crashes are frequent.

Fast times on Ridge Avenue, in front of Senn High School, are now over: The speed camera that CDOT installed in front of Senn Park has sharply cut the number of speeders cruising at a dangerous 40+ mph. Right after the camera was first installed, roughly seven out of 1,000 drivers received an official mailed warning for driving more than 10 mph above the speed limit. After the camera had been on for 44 days, it finally began issuing citations but sent tickets to fewer than two out of every 1,000 drivers.

The City of Chicago's automated speed enforcement system continues to succeed in reducing dangerous speeding around parks and schools. The Chicago Department of Transportation issued a press release earlier this month, stating that the number of speeding cars observed by its 51 speed cameras has fallen an average of 43 percent ever since the first week of the cameras' operation. At some locations, the number of speeders dropped as much as 99 percent.

WGN TV recently reported this week that 26 bicyclist and pedestrian injuries at Addison and Western, just outside of Lane Tech High school and within view of three speed cameras, "is relatively small." Reporter Jackie Bange did not clarify just how many injured Chicagoans would be "relatively large" and thus merit a public response.

Yesterday’s Sun-Times piece on speed camera data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act focused on the fact that the cams haven’t brought in much cash for the city, assuming that must be a big disappointment for Mayor Emanuel. However, the real story is that the program seems to be doing an excellent job of reducing speeding.